A disturbing new Scent
Of course Draco got sorted into Slytherin. The hat hadn't even hesitated one moment before screaming it through the Great hall, in it's quite scratchy Bariton.
But despite his Pureblood heritage and his already preestablished relationships with hiz Lackey's,
- Pansy, Vince and Greg had bothered him from the second they had entered the hogwarts express all the way to hogwarts station, until Draco had been ready to strangle one of them -
Draco did not make fast friends with everyone in the first week. And when he heard a discussion in the Slytherin common room about how being married to a werewolve was worse than being married to a muggle, Draco honestly didn't want to make friends at all. Especially not with any of them.
Blaise and Theo seemed nice enough though, so at least he didn't dread spending time in their dorm.
Instead of wasting his time befriending people who - Draco was sure - wouldn't like him if they knew his secret, his focus shifted from getting to know people, to studying for his classes and finding a way to not rip open a classmates throat out of hunger for blood.
Luckily, with the Slytherin Chambers being located in the dungeon, being both Slytherin and a vampire had it's perks.
Firstly, there was a minimum of sunlight which helped with the constant headache he got whenever he had to cross a sunlit corridor or leave the castle for classes.
Secondly, the dungeons just about crawled with mice and rats, when you looked close enough. And oh how closely Draco looked after going two days without one drop of blood.
The rodents were nice, some even well fed, with the kitchens not too far away. But they were still merely snacks.
Whenever Draco found himself hungry for more, the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest were the place to go, bursting with all sorts of nutritious creatures.
When classes started up for real, Draco even discovered a few other perks than just eunning a bit faster or being able to lift more than his peers, when Draco speeded his way up to the head of class.
Turns out being a half vampire and half wizard, complimented itself quite nicely. Before long Draco was sucking magic out of the air like the blood out of his late night meals. And the more he ate at night, the stronger and more potent his spells turned out to be.
So without having to actively do anything other than follow the basic rules of casting a spell and pronouncing it right, suddenly everybody wanted to be Draco's friend anyway.
Having friends, or at least people who wanted to be frineds with him, was strange for Draco. Suddenly there were all those personalities, names and backstories to keep track of. For the first time in his life Draco felt himself overwhelmed with all the attention.
People from all houses suddenly wanted to sit next to him in class, Theodore Nott, - a shy blonde Slytherin boy, with startling blue eyes - started tantatively asking all sorts of questions about how he made it all look so effortness without shoving it down anyones throat like that muggleborn Griffindor. Well he didn't phrase it like that, but Draco could read between the lines.
Then there was Terry Boot, - a dark haired Ravenclaw with the personality of the boot his family was named after- bothering him in Charms, by daring Draco to tell him his secret of how to do the livitation charm. Which seemed utterly pathetic to Draco. "Wingardium Liviosa" was not some N.E.W.T. level spell impossible to master. One would think that a Ravenclaw could figure that out himself.
And of course Susan Bones, - a hufflepuff first year with freckles and blond hair - flustered, asking Draco to be her partner in DADA, when they started with a simple shielding charm. That hadn't really worked out for her though, when he had mire or less accidentally annihilated her joke of a shielding charm on his first weak attempt.
Draco obviously did enjoy people finally noticing him.
Throughout his childhood there had never been much attention turned Draco's way. Of course before the bite, things had been different, but living a life literally in the shadows of society, had made the white haired boy a bit unaccustomed to it all. So in the end, for his own sake, Draco had to limit himself to only a hand full of friends. So taking his fathers rules into account, Slytherin seemed to be the safest bet of making frineds, if he wanted to stay in his family's grace.
And Blaise and Theo really did make a nice pair of friends. They didn't ask questions, when they found his bed empty after curfew. They didn't try to get him to spill all his secrets for laverage, like some second year had tried to.
And they somehow knew when to leave Draco alone. And Draco could really appreciate that.
--
As long ad there were ups in his First Year, there sadly had to be downs too. The biggest down being a particular meeting.
The first time Draco conciously noticed the chosen one in their midst was when Slytherin shared their first potions lesson with Gryffindor.
With how many questions Severus threw at the dark haired boy a few rows behind him, Draco almost felt sorry for Potter. Well he would, if there wasn't this distict smell of blood that made Draco's attention waver whenever, however shortly, he stopped comcentrating on Severus' words.
The fumes were almost dizzying. Dark magic mixing with the iron clad scent of blood. Thick enough for Draco to almost tast it on his tongue.
It cost Draco a lot of willpower not to rise up and rip someone's throat out. Preferably Harry Potter's, who seemed to be the origin of this scent. More specifically, his scar was.
It was maddening sitting in a room with a smell as delightful as this one, but unable to do anything about it.
Draco couldn't even stand up and leave. He also wanted to listen to what Severus was saying, really badly. So he had to sit there and breathe through it. Preferably not through his mouth though.
--
In the next potions lesson, Draco intentionally placed himself in the far right front corner of the room, in hopes of avoiding the smell at least a little bit. But not even the small mercies were given to him in life.
Apparently, to Draco's disadvantage, the Chosen one and his little pet weasel, didn't know when to shut up. So when Severus ripped the two apart by force, after extensive chattering between Weasley and Potter, of course as luck had it, it had been Draco's neighboring workstation that had still been unoccupied.
It had given Severus almost an open invitation to place Potter right next to Draco.
"Hi, I'm Harry. Harry Potter. I don't think we've met yet. What's your name?"
The childlike voice of his newly pronounced lab partner did nothing to sooth Draco's hunger. Nor did that small almost shy smile on the black haired boys lips.
It all only made Draco snarl disapprovingly.
Unable to open his mouth long enough, in fear of inhaling the full aroma of the smell overflowing the boy next to Draco, he said nothing and turned away.
The dissapointment written on the smaller boys face was very noticeable, even without looking at Potter. Fortunately the green eyed boy didn't comment on it and only diverted his attention towards Severus, after a few gloomy minutes of staring at Draco.
Because of how quiet the two had been over the course of the lesson, Severus thought it a good idea to keep their seating arrangements the same for the entire school year. Even when Draco took his godfather to the side one day after class, to show his disapproval over the idea. Severus had only looked at him with amusement and had still declined.
What a frustrating man.
So when Draco couldn't change the factors around him, he needed to change his own condition.